- Change of health care suffered a huge cyberattack in 2024
- Disruptions from this attack cost organizations millions
- The company is now chasing repayment of loans to cover losses from these disruptions
The United Health Group is “aggressive”, which goes after small health organizations that borrowed money after a huge cyberattack on its health change healthcare.
It is said that the attack has affected nearly 190 million Americans and was the largest US violation of health care ever and was incredibly disruptive, with systems that were only restored 9 months later, more than $ 2 billion costs to recover.
After the attack, interest -free loans were offered by change to help medical practice with short -term cash flow needs. The company now demands that these funds be “repaid” immediately “with some organizations asked to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few days.
Lost revenue
Optum, United Health’s Economic Arm, has now confirmed that it will withhold separate funds until these loans have been repaid.
Doctors with their own private practice used these loans to cover losses from the disturbance of the cyber event, which cost some hundreds of thousands – and some allegedly used personal savings to keep practices fluid.
It is worth noting that United Health has a net worth of over $ 470 billion (at the time of writing), and CEO Andrew Witty earned over $ 23 million in compensation by 2023.
Optum has raised over $ 4.5 billion of the $ 9 billion debt, but as many practices lost so much in downtime thanks to the disturbance, many will fight to repay the money owed in the only 5 -day timeframe, Optum has imposed, with a doctor describing it as a “shaker.”
Unitedthealth paid ransomware -attackers $ 22 million in cryptocurrency to recover its data – but the operation was still closed in its entirety and change never got its data back. Of course, medical data is extremely sensitive and puts someone exposed to the risk of identity theft or fraud.
Via CNBC
